Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Lots of girls ask me how I do the wavy cut with the scallop edge on my pages. So I thought I would show you how today. I am on the ball this week and even have photos to go along with my instructions! :)

1. First you will cut a strip of paper that will be your border, I usually cut it to fit the space it will go in. For example, if it is a top border for my layout I will cut it to 12 inches, but if it is to border a photo mat I will cut it to 4.25 inches long. (the thickness is up to you)

2. Next I cut a wave pattern on one side of the border strip using the Creative Memories wavy paper trimmer (you could trace a wave pattern with a wavy ruler, or draw your own wave and cut it if you do not have the trimmer)

3. Then I take a one inch strip of coordination cardstock and glue it to the back of the wave pattern. It should stick out enough for you to cut a scallop along the edge.

4. I then follow the wave pattern with my scallop scissors.

5. Now you have a cute wavy border! Little tip: when using this as a border for a photo mat, I always just glue down the edges so the photo can slide nicely underneath.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Well, I have been really busy and I just can't think of a good tip this week... One thing I always do is save my scraps. I have a crate of file folders and sort my scraps by color. You just never know when you may need just a small piece of something, and rather than cut into a new whole sheet I go to my scrap file. I also use scraps on many of my paper piecings.

So, today is just a little common sense advise... next week I will do better.

Also thought I would share a couple of custom layouts I completed this week.

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

It's time again for another Tuesday Tip! Do your layouts suffer from what I call the "plop, plop, fiz, fiz, oh what a mess this is" syndrome? This is where everything is just plopped here and there on the pages, and stuff just seems to be floating in space.

Whether you use stickers, flowers, 3-D embellishments, or paper piecings it is important to always anchor the item to something else on the page. Don't be afraid to let the embellishment overlap on a photo mat a little. This helps to make the items on your page flow nicely and give it some balance. If you have one lonely sticker floating by itself in a blank spot, it draws the eye there immediately and you don't see a nice flowing layout. I hope I am explaining this understandably. ;)

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Today I thought I would discuss aesthetics and design of a layout (or even a handmade card). While studying art and design you will learn what is aesthetically put together or pleasing to the eye. I will touch on just a couple of points tonight.

The first is working in odd numbers. Our brains like to see things in odd numbers, so if you are placing a grouping of something such as flowers on your piece, use an odd number of them. Three flowers grouped together looks better than two.... and so on. The design as a whole will be more pleasing with an odd number of items on it.

Another point to make is to arrange your items in a triangular pattern. Our eyes naturally read from left to right, but also we look up and down in a triangular pattern.

In the layout above notice how your eyes follow the flow of the page from left to right and up and down. Also note the use of odd numbered items. The 3 owls guide your eyes through the page up and down. There are also 5 large elements (mats and title block) to create more odd numbered items. Hopefully these tips will help you to create layouts, cards and other crafts in an aesthetically pleasing manner. Happy Scrapping!